OCAP Statement on the Report of the Commission for the Review of Social Assistance in Ontario

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP)

Over the last eighteen years, people on social assistance in Ontario have seen their real income levels fall by 56 per cent. For the last nine years, the Liberal Government of Dalton McGunity, while actually pushing people deeper into poverty, has continued a sham consultation process around “poverty reduction.” Recently, a Commission established by the Liberals issued a report on the “reform” of social assistance. The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) responded with this statement in which it argues that the report is a blueprint for forcing the poor into low waged jobs and pushing down wages for those presently employed.

Brighter Prospects is the spin doctored title of the long anticipated report on social assistance prepared for the Liberal Government by Frances Lankin and Munir A. Sheikh. For some nine years, the Liberals have talked “poverty reduction” while actually making people poorer and the release of this report is the crowning moment of this long process. As the Liberals prepare to intensify their agenda of social cutbacks and attacks on public sector workers, this report offers them three useful forms of assistance.